Abbie D. Kinnebrew, LCSW

Abbie Kinnebrew is an associate professor in the VCU School of Social Work. Most of her work has been in the Office of Field Education, but she also teaches in the classroom for the MSW program. Her teaching interests include field education, trauma-informed care, evidence-informed practice with children and adolescents, and mental health.

Kinnebrew’s interest in field education is grounded in the perspective that field is the “signature pedagogy” of social work education. Kinnebrew works to facilitate her students’ individual journeys of growth and development towards the goal of becoming competent social work practitioners who engage in intentional, reflexive, and evidence-informed social work practice.

Kinnebrew is a licensed clinical social worker with six years of post-graduate experience in clinical social work practice with children, adolescents, and their families, most of whom experienced chronic, complex trauma. She focused on engaging in and promoting trauma-informed practice at all times and in trauma-focused treatment when warranted through integrating empirically supported interventions with play therapy techniques.

Kinnebrew has been an active member of the Greater Richmond Trauma-Informed Community Network (TICN) since 2013. She co-founded the Trauma-Informed Workforce Development Committee (TIWD) of the TICN, which works to influence the education, training, and certification of our current and future child-serving workforce in the Greater Richmond area.

Another project Kinnebrew is involved in is aimed at disseminating the use of the evidence-informed practice system for children and adolescents called Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP). To this end, she has been collaborating with Michael Southam-Gerow, professor, chair of the psychology department, and the co-director of the Anxiety Clinic at VCU, to train students on the use of MAP. Planned future phases of this project involve disseminating MAP into community-based agencies in the Richmond area.

Kinnebrew is also passionate about supporting students development outside of field and the classroom through mentorship and collaboration.These relationships are often focused on student success, career planning, and self-care. She is also the faculty advisor to the School’s Queer & Trans Social Workers student group and works with this group to to promote an environment that is affirming to LGBTQ+ students at the VCU School of Social Work.